


The elf, the reindeer and the tree

by Gloredhel



Series: A merry little Siremy Christmas [1]
Category: Rise (TV 2018)
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Post Season/Series, Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21865189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gloredhel/pseuds/Gloredhel
Summary: The Travers are decorating for Christmas and Jeremy invites Simon to join them (with the proper attire, obviously). Icing on the cake - or better said, the tree top: homemade little gifts, kisses and a little scent of cinnamon.
Relationships: Simon Saunders/Jeremy Travers
Series: A merry little Siremy Christmas [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575223
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	The elf, the reindeer and the tree

**Author's Note:**

> Last year I was busy with my multichapter fic, but this year I couldn't miss again the chance to write some good 'ol Christmas fluff with Siremy, so here we are! This is the first one shot of three, each one set in a different moment of Christmas/winter time.  
> Thank you for reading it, I hope you enjoy it 😊

“All elves are summoned to the green room. Lunch break. J.”

A folded sheet of paper with a Christmas tree drawn on it and that message. It wasn't new for Simon to find messages from Jeremy in his locker, but this was kinda unusual. Maybe it was some kind of troupe idea like dressing up for rehearsal just to see Mr Mazzu's reaction? The only way to find out about it was to meet Jeremy.

Lunch break had just begun, so he went immediately to the green room. Jeremy was already there, alone.

“Hey, I’ve just found this in my locker, what is it and why are you wearing a Santa hat? It's not Christmas.”

“Yet. It will be soon.”

“It's a month before that.”

“Well, it is soon! Anyway, that's why you're here, my little elf...” Jeremy got closer, with a mischievous look in his eyes. “I wanted to ask you something...”

Simon looked around. “Wait...here? I didn't know you were into kinky role-playing stuff...and at school, even!” he joked widening his eyes. Jeremy's reaction was priceless.

“What?” he opened his mouth, as soon as he realized. “No, SIMON!” he punched him on his arm, his face redder than the Santa hat. “I didn't mean...you perv!” 

Simon burst out laughing. “You should look at your face.”

“I'm glad you're having fun, sir,” Jeremy replied crossing his arms and biting his lip to not laugh too. 

“Okay then, has it something to do with the troupe? Because I heard Jolene talking about a Secret Santa or something like that.”

“I heard that too, but no, it's about you and me.” Simon frowned in response, not knowing what to expect and Jeremy went on. “You know how much I love Christmas and to decorate the tree and the house. It's like a tradition for my family to do that all together, I wouldn't say it's as special as the very Christmas day, but very close...and I wanted to ask you to join us.”

“Join you to decorate?

Jeremy nodded. 

“But if it's a family tradition, what's this got to do with me? I'm not-”

“You are.” Jeremy interrupted him. “This is our first Christmas together and I'd love for you to be a part of this.”

“Oh. Me too, yeah. Thank you.” he smiled.

“Oh, don't even say that,” he hugged him and rested his head on Simon's shoulder. “Thank you for saying yes.”

“I liked the message in my locker, though. Meeting you here...and the hat.”

“Admit it, I always have the best ideas.”

“But a simple text would have been fine too, really. You're always so extra.”

“Better extra than boring.”

Simon pulled away, laughing. “Of course. So, when is it?”

“Next Saturday. Can't wait!” he clapped his hands cheerfully. “Now let's go eat something before the bell rings, 'c’mon.”

Couldn't be Saturday already? Simon thought. 

* * *

“Ho ho ho! Welcome to the Travers house, Simon the Santa's helper!”

Simon laughed as Jeremy moved aside to let him in. As soon as the door closed, since the rest of his family was in the living room and couldn't see them, Jeremy put his arms around Simon's neck and kissed him, first on the lips and then on the nose.

It was colder than usual for the beginning of December and Simon was freezing, but Jeremy was warm and smelled of cinnamon and had just kissed him on the nose...he was feeling better already.

“Is this the way you welcome all Santa's helpers?”

“No...just the one who happens to be my boyfriend.”

“Lucky me, then,” Simon chuckled and returned the kiss on the lips, before pulling away to take his coat and hat off.

Jeremy stared at him. “You're so cute with the cheeks flushed because of the cold, you know?”

Simon blushed even more and Jeremy caressed him. Every time he touched him like that, so naturally, Simon almost forgot his own name.

“But you're missing something. Come with me,” Jeremy led him to the living room, where his parents were getting ready to decorate for Christmas. The tree was right in the middle of the room, still bare. Jeremy's dad Larry was checking the functioning of the lights and Lisa, Jeremy's mother, had just started opening and sorting the boxes containing the ornaments that Jeremy had brought up earlier from the basement. 

“Oh, there you are, I thought you had left him out in the cold! Hi, Simon, it's nice to have you here,” Lisa said.

“Welcome, Simon!” Larry happily greeted him.

“Hi, thanks for inviting me,” Simon replied with a smile. Then, before he realized, Jeremy put something on his head: an elf hat.

“Aww, look at my little elf!”

Simon took the hat off. “What? I'm not -” 

“It's the family rule, Si: decorating the house with the proper Christmas attire. I have these,” he showed off his Christmas sweater with Rudolph's face and then put on a reindeer headband.

Simon rolled his eyes and then noticed that the rest of his family had similar sweaters. Larry had a Santa's hat too, while Lisa had what looked like a gingerbread bow in her hair. James had taken their dog Elphaba, a black mongrel, out for a walk and so he wasn't there in that moment, but Simon was sure the oldest Travers son wasn't an exception to that rule.

“Are you...are you for real?” and seeing Jeremy nodding very seriously, Simon sighed and chuckled. “Fine, if that's the rule...” and put the hat on again.

“Yay!” Jeremy cheered. 

“So, where do we start? The tree, I guess?” he rolled up his sleeves and reached Lisa, helping her with the boxes.

It was such a nice atmosphere: a little bit chaotic, maybe, with all the stuff around the room, but so warm and cheery. There were perfumed lit candles and the air smelled like berries, eucalyptus and a pinch of vanilla and chocolate. The notes of a Christmas songs playlist played in the background.

You could say the Travers loved Christmas and especially decorating together; just looking at them was enough to feel happy – singing softly, joking – but for Simon it was also the way they had welcomed him in their family and now had invited him to be part of this tradition. 

Simon had just put up the first ornament when he felt something literally jumping on him – well, someone: Elphaba, just returned from the walk, had run to him and was now jumping and happily wagging its tail. Simon bended down and she started licking his face.

“Hi, Elphie! I'm so happy to see you too!”

“Kissing right in front of me? Aren't you two ashamed?” Jeremy uttered, hands on his hips, pretending to be shocked. He loved the way Elphaba had immediately fallen in love with Simon as soon as she had met him and he literally adored to stare at them together; he could never decide who was cuter.  
“Okay, that's enough, let him go,” he literally took her off of Simon and the boy got up.

“Hey, I'm watching you. Both.” 

“No one can tear us apart, right Elphie?” Simon asked, amused. The dog barked in response and Jeremy shook his head and chuckled, before going back to work.

Larry and James were in charge of the lights and, since the tree ones were already arranged, they went to place those outside of the house, while Jeremy, Simon and Lisa were all around the huge tree putting up the ornaments. It was a real fir tree: the Travers used to visit the same tree farm every year to choose and cut their own; then, after holidays, they brought it back there for it to be replanted.

The Saunders had a plastic tree, instead; it was quite big too and very good looking when fully decorated, but Simon now had to admit that a real one was a different story. With its smell it was like having the woods in the living room.

And it looked even better with the multicolor ornaments and tinsel. There wasn't a color theme or a style; every time Simon picked up a bauble or tinsel to hang – a snowman, Santa, animal, candy cane, snowflake, anything – it was different from the previous. It made the tree truer to its owners, because – Lisa had explained – each one had memories attached to it, like a place they had visited, a person they had met, a passion and so on.

“Oh, I bet these are yours, J,” Simon said, taking a box labeled with _theatre stuff_. 

“Yep. My favorites! Open it,” he said. It contained the complete set of Playbill ornaments together with several other musical ones – the Mary Poppins umbrella, baby Simba, the Aladin lamp and a ball with several show logos on it.

“Wow, they're amazing!”

“Thank you! They're mostly gifts from my aunt, she knows I love musicals.”

“Well, it's not truly a secret, is it?” Simon laughed.

“Not really, no,” he admitted with a giggle. “Help me to hang them.”

“Oh, so he can touch them and we can't?” Lisa cut in. “You know, Simon, he doesn't let anybody do that.”

“But he's not anybody,” Jeremy replied and put his arm around Simon's waist. “He's Simon, my favorite elf,” and he kissed him on his cheek. “Who'll get some special cuddle in return, later,” he whispered in his ear.

“Okay, but let's go back to work now,” Simon said, starting to hang the ornaments. Thankfully Lisa couldn't see his face as he was turned, but he had blushed a little at the thought of being in Jeremy's arms, kissing and cuddling. He sighed.

“We're almost done here, don't worry,” Jeremy said without looking at him, as if he read his mind. Simon glanced at him and smiled.

Jeremy was right. The theatre ornaments were the only ones left before the topper and Lisa added some silver garlands as final touch, then she turned on the lights. They all stepped back a little to look at the finished work.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?” Lisa uttered.

“Oh wait, I almost forgot!” Simon went to get something from his coat pocket. He came back with a small object wrapped in a piece of tissue paper.

“My sister loves to make ornaments for our tree, I like to help her and do some too...this is an angel I made...for you. It's not fancy, but I hope you like it,” he looked first at Lisa and then at Jeremy, to whom he handed out the gift.

He had made a blond angel out of wool felt, with blue eyes and the wings covered with a piece of sheet music. His sister had immediately guessed he was thinking at Jeremy while making it and how could have it been otherwise? That's what Jeremy was, for him.

“It's amazing, Si...thank you! Mum, look!” 

“Oh, it's lovely, Simon, thanks,” she smiled.

“I'll hang it here, front and center. Thank you again,” and he hugged him. Not surprisingly it had immediately become his favorite ornament.

“It's not a big deal, but I'm glad you like it.”

“I love it.”

They had just pulled away that Larry and James entered the room. After arranging the lights outside they had added some garlands, tinsel and big red ribbons; Larry complimented Lisa, Simon and Jeremy for the tree and then he said they had just to put the last touches on the rest of the house.

Nothing huge – bows, fake poinsettia flowers on windowsills (and a couple of real potted ones at the entrance), garlands on the banister. 

“Wait, there's also my mini tree! Simon will help me,” Jeremy said.

He had wanted to have something to remind him of Christmas in his room too for so long and that year his parents had finally agreed to buy him a mini Christmas tree. It was real too and he wanted to adorn it with multicolor lights and baubles and a rainbow garland.

They divided; Jeremy literally dragged Simon away to go upstairs and at every decoration they put, if nobody was in sight, he gave him a kiss. Or two. But that wasn't getting them very far. 

“It will take forever if we keep going like this,” Simon mumbled between kisses.

“What! I do it to keep you motivated!”

“Oh, do you?” Simon chuckled before grabbing Jeremy's lips again. 

“Mmmh-mmh.”

A longer kiss.

“Well, it's not working,” Simon breathed with a smile. “'C’mon, we still have a bunch of stuff your mum gave us to place, my little Rudolph. And your tree,” he pulled away to pick up the box with the decorations left.

Jeremy took it from him, opened the door of his room which was a few steps farther on the hall and threw it inside - nothing breakable, of course - together with the reindeer headband he was still wearing. “Done,” and came back to Simon.

“I thought you loved decorating.”

“I do. But right now I’d rather kiss you.” Slowly he began to lightly touch Simon's neck with his lips and he was about to suggest to follow the decorations box and go into his room, when Lisa called them from downstairs.

“Guys, are you done?”

Jeremy snorted. “Yes, mum!” he shouted.

“Come down, then. Pie's ready!”

Simon looked at Jeremy, who still had his arms around him. “Cool, I was hungry. Which kind of pie?” 

“Cinnamon-sugar apple pie.”

Simon couldn't believe Lisa had prepared his favorite pie and this also explained why Jeremy smelled of cinnamon; he had probably helped her and bungling as he was...Simon felt so happy he could cry – he loved them so much.

“Oh. Now I get it.”

“What?”

Simon bopped him on his nose, smiling. “Why you smell like a giant cinnamon roll.”

“Are you suggesting that I made a mess with the spice pot while helping my mum and it ended up on my clothes? Because that's exactly what happened.”

Simon cackled. “Why you didn't change, then?”

“I just brushed it, I didn't want to change because this is my favorite Christmas sweater and...okay, I know it's stupid, but you love cinnamon, so I didn't mind having the smell of it on me,” he giggled. 

“I don't mind it either,” Simon said, smooching him on the cheek. “Anyway, you're already my cinnamon roll, there's no need to dive yourself in the spice pot,” he whispered in his ear.

“Aww...” Jeremy buried his face in Simon's neck, clinging to him. That was mushy as hell, but damn...it made his heart flip.

“Guys! The pie cools down!” Lisa shouted again from downstairs.

“Ugh,” Jeremy grumbled, pulling away from Simon. “We'll finish the conversation later. In my room. Coming!” he then yelled back and hand in hand with Simon, they went downstairs.

* * *

“Can I take the hat off, now? Or Santa has some more work for his elf?” Simon asked, laid down on Jeremy's bed. His boyfriend was next to him, his head resting on his chest.

Jeremy sat up and looked at him. “Sure you can, I threw away my headband earlier!” he laughed and took the elf hat off of Simon's head, tossing it on the floor.

“But you kept the sweater.”

“You want me to take that off too?” he teased.

“No, no, it's fine, you can keep it!” Simon laughed. “With your parents downstairs...!”

“Hey, I didn't say undress completely, just the sweater! What's with these dirty thoughts, Saunders?” Jeremy pocked him.

“It's not me, it's that I can read your mind.”

“Love me some elves with superpowers,” Jeremy replied, inches from his face. “And dirty thoughts,” he bit his lower lip, before kissing Simon. Slowly, extremely slowly – and with a little bit of tongue, because why not - just to drive Simon crazy.

“Okay, if you keep going like this, I'll take back what I said about your sweater,” Simon said pulling away and holding Jeremy's face in his hands, flushed. 

Jeremy cackled. “See? You're not the only one who can read minds.”

“I love that. And you.”

“I love you too,” Jeremy smiled, gazing at him.

“Anyway, uhm...thank you for inviting me today, it's been amazing, really. You make everything special, Jer, even a simple thing such as decorating for Christmas and now I know where you get that from. It runs in the family and it's beautiful.”

“Yeah, we're kinda born this way,” he chortled. “But for you I'd do that anyway. I'd do anything for you,” he smiled shily.

Simon sighed. “Me too,” and he kissed him softly.

Then Jeremy snuggled up to him; holding him in his arms, Simon's eyes went to the mini tree placed next to his desk they had just finished decking out. 

“I'm of a mind to put a tree in my room, too. Yours turned out so nice,” Simon said.

“Then I have something for you,” he got out of bed and took a small paper bag from his wardrobe. “It seems we had the same idea,” he said handing it to Simon. “My dad helped me cutting the shape and I painted it. It's the first time I do it, I hope it doesn't suck!” he explained, looking at Simon unwrapping the gift.

It was a little rainbow made of plywood with two tiny clouds at both ends and a glitter purple ribbon for hanging it on the Christmas tree.

“Suck? It's adorable, Jer! I...I love it,” Simon beamed. “It's about me...and us too. Thank you.”

Jeremy nodded, cheeks turning pink. “That was my intention, yeah.” 

Simon put the ornament on the night table next to his phone (so he wouldn't forget it later) and then leaned in to kiss Jeremy. “Now you know what would make this day even more perfect? Singing.”

Jeremy clapped his hands. “YES! Christmas songs, of course.”

“Of course,” Simon nodded.

“Ready with my karaoke playlist!” Jeremy jumped out of bed and opened his laptop. “I go first! Any preference?”

“Uhm...Santa Baby. With the choreography,” he added. A few days before he had caught Jeremy, Francis and Cheryl doing a little dance while singing this song and it was so funny to watch.

“As you wish! Although it's not the same with me alone.”

“I'm sure you'll be fabulous.” 

As the first notes played, Simon leaned back to enjoy the show. 

He did love Christmas.


End file.
